#4 Play Crack the Sky -Deja Entendu

Ranking on Guitarasaurus's list: #2

According to interviews I have seen with Jesse Lacey, this is his favorite song on Deja. He recorded it last minute in his friend's basement and put it on the album. The reason the song is titled is "Play Crack the Sky" (according to wiki) is because one day Jesse Lacey and his friend, John Nolan saw an older Mylon LeFavre, the artist who performed the song "Crack the Sky". LeFavre seemed nuts when they noticed that he was playing guitar for an empty parking lot. Nolan shouted at LeFavre "Play 'Crack the Sky!'" After hearing this, LeFavre put his head down in shame. Though it is a funny story, it has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics whatsoever.

Lacey makes yet another nautical reference throughout the song. He relates relationships with being lost at sea and finding out your ship is sinking right before you're about to reach land. We sent out an SOS call. It's a quarter past four in the morning when the storm broke our second anchor line. Doesn't this just remind you of that show the Deadliest Catch? It's where these guys go fishing for crabs during all these bad weather conditions.Four months at sea, four months of calm seas to be pounded in the shallows off the tip of Montauk Point. You'd think that none of those words would flow together as a rhyming song, but it blows your mind. It's something that only Brand New could pull off.

They call them rogues, they travel fast and alone. One hundred foot faces of God's good ocean gone wrong. As ignorant as I am, I didn't know what a rogue was, so I looked it up. Wikipedia says: "Rogue waves, also known as freak waves, monster waves or extreme waves, are relatively large and spontaneous ocean surface waves that are a threat even to large ships and ocean liners." That makes a lot more sense. The way Lacey wrote "God's good ocean" sends shivers. This meaning normally the ocean is a beautiful thing that is calm and glorious. But that day something had gone wrong and it had turned into something ugly. Since this song is last on Deja, I think it is sort of prepping for TDAGARIM. This is why God is mentioned, and not only in a good sense. What they call love is a risk, cause you always get hit out of nowhere by some wave and end up on your own. Again, you would think that none of these words would flow together as a song, but its incredible. This comparison is an obvious message saying what the song is about. This is the only Brand New song that literally tells you what the song is about.

Your tongue is a rudder that steers the whole ship, sends your words past your lips, keeps them safe behind your teeth. This illustrates a girl being a complainer but shes being compared to the steering wheel of a boat. But the wrong words will strand you, come off course while you sleep. Sweep your boat off to sea or dashed to bits on the reef. The wrong words, or movements on the ship, will strand you in a relationship, or make you lost at sea. In this song, there is a double meaning for everything.

One thing just kind of slaps me in the face when hearing this song. That thing is Titanic. I don't know about you guys, but the biggest boat I have ever seen sink is the Titanic. This reminds me of Kate Winslet and Leo DiCaprio holding onto that chunk of ice and waiting to be saved. They are both so in love but the fact that the boat is sinking and they both want to save each other, not themselves. The vessel groans, the ocean pressures it's frame. To the port I see the lighthouse through the sleet and the rain. The lighthouse represents hope. Land is so nearby that they might just make it through the horrid weather and ship wreak. And I wish for one more day to give my love and repay debts. The morning finds our bodies washed up thirty miles west. This makes me think so far beyond that. What happens when they are found and their parents get that dreaded call that their son was found washed up on shore? It just makes me think and feel sympathetic.

They say that the captain stays fast with the ship through still and storm, but this ain't the Dakota, the water's cold. Won't have to fight for long. As you may know, the colder the climate, the warmer the water. This is what Lacey means by This ain't the Dakota, the water's cold. Again, I think of Titanic. Lacey won't have to fight for long because he will freeze to death in the unruly waters off of Montauk. How depressing. There is no hope, and you know you are going to die and cannot be saved. At least the ending is perfect.

The reason this song is number 4 is because of the fabulous lyrics, of course. Though it is acoustic and recorded solo, the lyrics far surpass any guitar or drum solo. The ending makes you want to cry the first time you hear it. I know I sure did. This is the end. This story's old but it goes on and on until we disappear. Calm me and let me taste the salt you breathed while you were underneath. "This is the end" symbolizes the end of the album. They are both drowning and he wants to die after she does. He needs her to let him taste the salt she is tasting while she is drowning. I am the one who haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the sea. I spoke the words but never gave a thought to what they all could mean. Lacey is saying that it is his fault that she is drowning. He haunts her dreams of the highest places on earth, and yet she is at the bottom of the sea. This song is a perfect 10.

Best quote(s): I know that this is what you want. A funeral keeps both of us apart. You know that you are not alone. Need you like water in my lungs. This symbolizes the break up. This also symbolizes that he is saved and she is not. She wanted to break up anyway and she had to die in order for them to be apart. Jesse Lacey doesn't need her, he never did. No one needs water in their lungs.